This story is the third installment in a God knows how many part series.
Part One: Four Brothers and a Funeral
Part Two: The Problem With Leo
**

"Happy Birthday," the thin woman said with a grin, hooking her free arm around the man's frame and leaning in to give him a quick hug and kiss on the cheek. "Here, this is for you."

Without missing a beat she broke free of the embrace and maneuvered the square, elegant silver-wrapping present towards the front of her torso, passing it across to the older man's waiting and outstretched arms.

"Mari! You shouldn't have!" was the genuinely surprised response. This didn't stop Johnny Rossi, now fifty-five years old, from carrying it over towards the dining room table already laden with other packages, skipping like a young boy as he did so.

She couldn't help but shake her head and sigh in mock disappointment at the actions her older brother was displaying. You would think with each year of age he became he would get more dignified and suave. Yet here he was, studying the spread of gifts and finger-foods with such child-like intensity that she could almost perfectly recall a vision of him doing the same, merely thirty-five years ago. Shaking her head and blinking several times to break her reverie, Marietta Rossi, Godfather of the Detroit crime underworld, shrugged her dark brown coat off of her shoulders. Quickly, she hung it up upon one of the free wooden pegs on the coat rack next to the front door, before crossing into the all-too-familiar living and dining room of the modest Los Angeles home.

A soft scent from the kitchen played at her nose. Spice cake. Her sister in-law Sarah was a full-blown artist in the kitchen, and anyone who had the privilege of tasting one of her birthday cakes knew just that fact. The muted sound of talking from the radio drifted from beyond the invisible barrier between the kitchen and dining room, a tinkling of a laugh following afterward. Marietta couldn't help but smile; she had always adored Sarah, her brother's college sweetheart, a sincere woman who was motivated and energetic... exactly what she needed to be to keep up with her husband.

Still grinning at the sound, the blonde woman turned towards the dining room table, where her brother was sitting in one of the dark, wooden chairs, staring at her expectantly. The place hadn't changed in years, just as was to be expected. Johnny's house had always felt like a home away from home every single time she visited the City of Angels. Pulling out one of the other chairs, she sat down on the opposite side of the table, reaching forward to sift a few packages to the side so her view of her brother wasn't obscured.

"Just us?" she questioned, her eyes moving towards the front door.

"Us, Sarah and the boys. These presents were sent by the people who couldn't make it, unfortunately," Johnny said, nodding his head and shrugging. He was the type of man who really didn't care about large lavish parties, and that was exactly what Mari loved about him. Staring at the gifts she shook her head and turned back to her brother.

"You're getting old, John," Marietta suddenly said, laughing and leaning back in her chair. "I can't believe it. The big five-five."

"Better watch your mouth," came Johnny's joking retort. "You'll be fifty in only a few years. You're catching up."

"By that time you'll be in a grave," she quipped back, sticking out her tongue childishly.

"So might you!" Johnny blurted with a laugh.

The laughter faltered and fell into an uncomfortable silence. Her grin was completely gone as she sighed softly to herself.

What he had said was true, as much as Mari hated to admit it. Johnny had been the only member of her family she had ever been open with about her 'business'. As a banker she knew he didn't know much to accept the lifestyle, but he knew enough to understand it. They had both learned, from experiencing the death of their mother and father, that the only way out of the business was in a box. And with Marietta getting older and slower every year... Well, she wasn't as young as she used to be in her prime, that was for sure.

"H-how's everything going?" John said, testing the waters for a casual conversation.

Marietta's grin flickered back for a moment; if this were any of her other siblings she would probably be receiving a grand lecture by now. The warnings of danger. The jibes and the non-supportive comments. Her green eyes wandered as she stared up at the green eyes of the older man- the ones that matched her own. She studied him intensely for a moment; every wrinkle in his face, every strand of dark hair, every inch of his tall frame before nodding. Johnny. Old reliable. Her brother. Her best friend.

"Well, thanks," she said after a moment's pause. "Business is going well. I'm still seeing... well I already told you that on the phone last week. Nothing's changed with him. The kids are all good. Harold's a regular dynamo. Kates is turning into quite the entrepreneur. Naomi's doing very well in school. And I'm great. It's a good time for me right now."

She nodded, thinking over everything she had just stated and finding no faults or lies. Everything was going well with her; for the first time in a very long time there was no emergency to tend to, no chaos to settle. Things were simply... fantastic.

"How about you?" she added quickly, feeling rude that she hadn't asked that immediately.

"Oh, you know," Johnny started, still surveying his sister carefully.

"If I knew I wouldn't have asked," Marietta teased.

Johnny shook his head and rolled his eyes, much in the same gesture of annoyance that she herself did so often.

"Things are well. Sarah and I are starting to spend more time together as they're slowly cutting out my responsibilities at work. I'll tell ya, I don't know if I can handle this retirement thing well. We're managing, though. And the boys-"

As if on some secret cue, the front door slowly opened and closed, a small shuffling sound and giggling the only sign that someone had entered at all. Marietta and Johnny's heads craned around the presents to watch the entrance hall next to the room for the culprit behind the new flurry of activity.

"Aunt Mari!" came a deep voice as a tall, dark-haired young man stepped into view. His face was bright and happy, a high wattage smile and big, bright dark eyes a direct indicator of such. For a moment the woman was caught in a time warp where it seemed as if a younger John was standing in the doorway, before she realized who it was. Within a few steps Michael Rossi, Marietta's oldest nephew and Johnny's oldest son, had crossed the room and wrapped her up in a bear hug. Jostling her around for a moment in a joking manner, he didn't let go until she laughed and swatted at him playfully.

"Michael! Look at you- you look great!" she gushed in response, beaming at the man and jolting in surprise as she noticed a timid young woman step into the doorway. Michael wasted no minute rushing to her side and grabbing her hand. Pulling her forward he stopped in front of his Aunt and placed his hands on the red-haired girl's shoulders delicately.

"Mari," Michael said slowly. Marietta could tell he was about ready to keel over in excitement or burst into flames by the way he looked at the girl. "This is Laura, my fiance."

"Fiance?!" the Godfather exclaimed, placing her hands to her mouth in surprise. "Oh my! Congratulations!"

Jumping up from her chair like a jack rabbit she embraced her nephew in another hug before turning and taking the dark-eyed girl's hand in hers and giving it a formal handshake.

"Very nice to meet you!" Marietta exclaimed as Laura giggled- the same giggle she had heard from the foyer earlier. She couldn't help but notice she was a cute and simple girl, and was delighted that Michael had found his match.

"Wow, engaged!" Marietta said, glancing over at Johnny and raising her eyebrows in a 'did you know about this?' gesture.

"Engaged," Johnny repeated in a firm manner, nodding back towards his sister in a 'yes I knew' sort of confirmation. The brilliance of having a sibling meant never having to say things out loud. "This is what I was about to tell you before they came in."

"Dad," Michael interrupted, "We're going in to say hello to Mom and see if she needs help. Happy birthday."

The young man and woman clasped hands and walked through the doorway to the kitchen beyond their view, where happy voices began talking quickly and loudly.

"Engaged," Marietta repeated, feeling like a parrot. She carefully sat back down in her chair and shook her head at her brother in disbelief. "When the hell did he grow up?"

"Awhile ago. Shocking, isn't it?" Johnny answered with a sigh and a shrug. "He's working at the bank now too. Everyone says he'll take after me, and I don't doubt that for one moment."

Smiling across at his sister she merely nodded at him back, urging him to continue on with the news of all his children.

"...And Nathaniel," he continued awkwardly as he mentioned his second son, rolling his eyes at his sister again for making him talk more than he was comfortable doing, "Is doing fine. He's working at the local paper running the press machines. He's hoping to be a reporter sometime soon."

"Very nice. He can come work for me," Marietta said simply, glowing with pride about her nephew's achievements in the journalism world- as small as they may have been up until that point in time. She felt her heart grow heavy and her eyebrows knit together as she took a deep breath and asked what had been on her mind more often than not lately.

"And what about... how's Henry?" she queried carefully, chewing on the inside of her mouth in worry.

Her gut wrenched late at night when she was all alone, thinking of her favorite nephew and the last time they had seen one another. Even though it had been over a year since that night and her Father's funeral had long been put behind her, there were times that Marietta could not help but recall the last words they had ever spoken to one another.

After an argument with her brother Paulie which had somehow inspired Henry to want to be like his Aunt, he had asked if he could join her crime organization. Upset that he had even known about it, Marietta had warned him against the dangers and denied his request. Even now, as she sat at Johnny's table, she could hear the words echo in her head...

"Do you know how many people I loved that I have lost in this line of work? It isn't a story that you can tell your friends to sound tough and brave. It's a lifestyle. It's hard. Every day, no matter what rank you are, no matter how well-connected or well-liked or well your business is run... it's the hardest thing you'll ever do."

"If you don't let me join I'll just find somewhere else I can."

"If you join another mob, don't tell me about it and make it far away from my business. It would break my heart to read your name in the obituaries one Sunday."

She sighed, watching as Johnny's face drew closed and lost it's normal traces of humor- knowing it could only mean one thing. Henry had not listened to a word she had said on that occasion twelve months ago. The two siblings sat in silence, Marietta's heart beating erratically as her mind drummed up a laundry list of horrible scenarios that the young, nineteen year old man could be involved in.

"Is it bad?" she finally whispered, her tone painted with the worry of a child looking for comfort from her older brother.

"It's bad," was all Johnny could choke out. She had always known that something like this would kill her brother, but she had never known quite how much until she saw it up close and personal like this. "He won't tell us, but we know he's... he's involved."

"Listen-" she began just as the short figure of Sarah came bustling into the room holding a large platter with a cake on top.

The thin, dark-haired woman smiled politely at the two before glancing around the room and pausing as if in thought. Her dark eyes blinked several times before turning to Marietta and Johnny, bright and sparkling.

"Nathaniel and Henry aren't here yet?" Sarah asked in surprise.

"Not yet," Johnny said, immediately shaking off the gloomy cloud that had been pressing in on the room and smiling at his wife as if nothing was wrong.

"Well I suppose we'll just have to get started without-"

BOOM.

No one within the dining room could tell what was scarier; the sound of the front door crashing against the wall in the foyer, or the entire house frame shaking when the action occurred. For Marietta she knew without a doubt what the scariest part was for her. The young man that walked inside, clutching his arm to his chest as a pool of blood wound it's way down his torso like a snake. His hair was disheveled, his face unwashed. Within moments the wild eyes on the boy had taken in the entire scene before him- the presents and the cake and the people, and with an animalistic snarl he rushed through the scene and straight into the kitchen.

The scariest part for Marietta was that there was no possible way in the world that could have been Henry.

"H-Henry?" Sarah asked with a shriek, placing the cake down unsteadily on the table and swooning on the spot. Johnny was out of his chair within seconds and was supporting his wife as he looked towards the kitchen- anger and fear mixed upon his lined face.

Without waiting for another word Marietta turned and walked purposefully into the kitchen. Michael held Laura in his arms near the refrigerator, cowering away from the back of Henry's quivering and shaking frame. She stepped closer to him and noticed he was running his hand and arm underneath the kitchen faucet, grumbling to himself and jutting his jaw out in pain. He was taller than she had last remembered him being. And much more built. Could this pained and unrecognizable young man really be the nephew she had loved since the day of his birth?

"Henry," Michael said simply, scrunching his face up in regret as his younger brother turned immediately from the sink in a fury.

"Just leave me the FUCK alone!" he boomed, his voice deep and gravelly. He narrowed his eyes at his Aunt as he pushed past her back into the dining room, causing her to teeter on the spot for a moment before she regained her sense of balance. A small conversation broke out between his mother and father but he barked at them in the same commanding tone as well. Seconds later a door slammed shut from across the house and nothing but whispers could be heard.

Glancing towards Michael and Laura, Marietta sadly dragged her feet back into the dining room, where Sarah was now sitting in one of the empty chairs and Johnny was hovering over her. She was pale white and shrieked once more before burying her head in her hands- dissolving into a fit of tears. Johnny placed his hands upon her shoulders and stared at the back of his wife's head before turning towards his sister.

Johnny and Marietta made eye contact and Marietta's heart sunk down to her stomach. This wasn't Henry. This couldn't be Henry. Where did the joyful and enthusiastic youth go? Had this been her fault, by introducing the life of crime to his world? She just should have denied it existed when he asked. Was this what living with him had been like for the last year? Suddenly she felt overwhelming pain and sadness for her brother and sister-in-law, for having to live with this ferocious man who was once their lovely son.

Shaking her head at nothing in particular she wandered out of the dining room and up the stairs of the modest home. She had to turn this around. She knew she had to change this. Fix this. The soft, beige carpeted hallway upstairs was lined with family photos hanging on the white walls in between the four doorways. Three were open, showing the interior of each of the boy's rooms. The last door, closed, Marietta knew led to the bathroom. Strained sounds of muttering and water running echoed from inside.

Opening her hand so her palm was flat she hit the door loudly, twice in rapid succession.

"You open up this Goddamned door right now," Marietta said gruffly. She was inexplicably angry. Worried. Guilty. A snort edged it's way around the cracks of the closed door which made her all the more furious.

"Don't make me break it down. You let me in and you talk to me or I'm making you pay for the damages I cause here," she threatened, backing away from the brown, wooden door a few paces. The lithe woman would need a running start to crash through the door if it came to that.

A few seconds passed before the click of the lock was heard, and the door was pulled open gently.

"What the hell do you want?" Henry said bitterly, glaring at his Aunt once more. The pair locked eyes furiously, neither blinking and both pairs of green eyes darting back and forth between the others. Eventually, tired of the game, Marietta stormed forward and threw her shoulder into the door. Though it sent a jolt of pain through the area where she had been shot months previous, she was satisfied when Henry lost his balance and shuffled backwards a few feet. The blonde woman walked inside, closing the door menacingly behind her.

The pale yellow bathroom was cheerful and well-lit, with a white tiled floor and beautiful hand-painted white shelves and cupboards. A single framed mirror hung on the wall behind Henry, showing the woman her wild reflection as she rounded on her nephew. This wasn't enough to quash any of the anger that Marietta felt as she looked at Henry full in the face for the first time in a year. Resisting the urge to slap some sense into him, she put her hands on her hips in a matronly way and narrowed her eyes dangerously.

"First of all, you don't talk to me like that. You think you're a tough business man? Then we're going to play the business game. I out-fucking-rank you. Speak to me with respect," she snapped, feeling livid.

Henry put his dark-haired head down and curled his upper lip into a scowl. The sink wasn't running loudly enough to block out the string of swear words he rattled off either. It was something he had often done as a child when his older brothers had teased him. It was something that Marietta, too, recognized she had done when she was a child and her own brothers had tried doing the same thing to her. Realizing that underneath all of the dirt and edgy exterior her favorite nephew remained, she could feel her resolve softening.

"Secondly," she said, pulling her hands off her hips and reaching for his arm to pull it closer towards her, "let me see this."

The boy winced as she touched his arm. The Godfather felt nothing but a blind rage as she stared at a knife gash, deep enough to bleed but not enough so to be considered serious, that worked it's way up from underneath his middle finger halfway up his inner arm. Too wide to put just a bandage over. And there was blood everywhere; dried and fresh mixing together to spread across his arm like a brush fire.

"What the hell happened here, Henry?" Marietta said softly, guiding his arm back under the running water of the bathroom sink and grabbing a hand-towel off the nearby shelf. Pressing it to his wound gently, she began to clean away most of the blood so she could see things more clearly. "We should get you to a hospital."

"You can't take me. I can't go there," Henry snapped, trying to jerk his hand away from his Aunt. Stomping on his foot to keep him in line, Marietta smirked as she heard him yelp and then sigh in defeat.

"If I go to the hospital I'll get in trouble for... for ratting people out," Henry finally stated simply, caving in and allowing his Aunt to finish cleaning his wound. "I can't tell anyone how I got this."

Marietta clicked her tongue and pointed towards the toilet.

"Sit!" she said, looking through the various shelves and cupboards in the small room. After a minute of careful searching she found what she was looking for- a tiny bottle of rubbing alcohol and a small sewing kit. Turning towards her nephew she tossed the bottle of alcohol to him and smiled with a sadistic sort of joy.

"That'll sting like a bitch but it needs to be cleaned," was her last statement before she began pulling out a needle and a pale colored thread. As he watched her his face began to turn green.

"W-What's that for?" he asked, not really wanting to know the answer.

"Home repair. This is what you wanted, wasn't it? Not going to the hospital?" she asked in a teasing tone, not hesitating as she prepped the needle by dipping it into the alcohol bottle quickly.

His face contorted in disbelief he grabbed some toilet paper and poured some of the alcohol onto it. Dabbing his wound delicately he let out a groan of pain.

"Sonnovabitch this hurts," he said, looking up at Marietta with sad eyes.

"Mmmhmm," she answered, threading the needle and walking towards him slowly. "It's going to get worse in about a minute here, too. And you still have yet to tell me how you got it."

Henry carefully weighed his words as he finished up cleaning his wound, allowing the sting to distract him about what he was about to admit to his Aunt.

"I... I work for some guys here, in the city. They wanted me to deliver some news," he said, slowly, pulling the toilet paper away from his arm and biting his bottom lip as Marietta approached him with the needle and thread.

"This is best if you don't watch," she said without a trace of sympathy. "And maybe grab a hand towel. Bite down on it if it starts to hurt. And scream. What kind of news?"

Sitting on the cold, tiled floor, Marietta pulled Henry's arm into her lap and adjusted it to catch the light from the overhead lamp. Examining it closely once more she determined it wouldn't be too hard to patch up. Wincing she took the needle to Henry's skin and pushed it through the first lump of flesh on his arm. His scream was cut short by him stuffing a hand towel into his mouth. She paused, momentarily, until he gave her a curt nod of his head and she continued to start a weaving pattern. Even though this had not been her first time 'repairing' someone, it didn't make it any easier with a multitude of experience under her belt.

"Keep talking," she said, feeling a bit squeamish herself. "Don't think about it. Don't look. What kind of news did you have to deliver?"

"The Boss," Henry panted, squeezing his eyes shut in pain as Marietta weaved the needle and thread higher up his arm, "...wanted me to... tell some boys downtown that we're... ouuuucchhh... that we uh, we want them to give us their business or we'll be forced to take it from them."

Marietta stopped, sighing heavily and looked at her nephew. With his face screwed up in some sort of childish expression, she couldn't help but think of how young the boy actually was. Completely innocent and utterly naive. He went in there without a gun even? What the hell was he thinking? He had too much to learn before entering this business, and these men he was working for, his 'Boss', wasn't doing a very good job at showing him the ropes. Returning to her needlework she casually cleared her throat.

"You know Henry, in my experience the people who deliver that type of news usually end up dead."

"D-dead?" he asked, venturing to open his eyes a fraction of an inch before slamming his eyelids closed once more.

"Dead. You got off lucky here."

The pair sat in silence as Marietta finished the first aid, tying a tiny knot in the end of the thread and snipping the loose ends with her teeth. Using the shelf above her she pulled herself to a standing position and grabbed a fresh hand towel. Dousing it with a liberal amount of rubbing alcohol she ran the cloth up the length of his arm and back down again for good measure.

"This is going to hurt very badly for quite awhile, you know. And you've got to keep it clean. In a week or so we can see about removing this terrible sewing job, alright?" Tilting her head at him sympathetically he looked up at her with large eyes.

"Mari," he said quietly, standing up. She had never realized just how tall he had gotten until he towered over her. "Could I have really ended up dead?"

"Yes," she said honestly without hesitation. "You have to realize that this isn't a game, Henry. I told you that a year ago. Any day, any time, anywhere... you could end up dead and it's over. It's all over."

"B-but you do it. Your brother, m-my dad, he hates it but you still do it," he said. It wasn't an accusation, or a question. Merely a statement as he glanced down at her with worried eyes.

"I do," she responded slowly, tilting her head and causing her blonde curls to fall over her shoulders. "And it's a terrifying thing, knowing that my life expectancy can be up at any moment. You just can't think about it. But you know, Henry, this is what I'm good at. I'm good at a lot of things, but this is the one thing that's stuck and made sense. Over my years, I've found other people who are pretty damn good at it too."

Taking a deep breath, she leaned against the door and surveyed the dark-haired boy.

"That's why people join this thing. It's not to shoot people and to look awesome in front of some friends and associates. They do it for the feeling of unity. Of family. Of working towards a common goal. Taking care of one another and assuring one another that you will be there until the bitter end. Yeah, you turn a couple of bucks at the end of the day and I'm not going to lie, some of the things I've seen and done in my life have been pretty swell, but I don't keep going back because I enjoy the meetings and the deal brokering. I keep going back every morning because of the people. You're my family, Henry, but in these associates of mine... I've found another family that's every bit as important to me as you are."

"And I hate to say it," she added on with a frown, "but it doesn't sound like these guys you run with care about you all too much at all."

He was silent as he pondered what she said for a moment. Before Mari knew it, though, Henry was standing tall and squaring her shoulders towards her.

"This is what I'm good at though, Mari," he whispered. "I know Mom and Dad are always saying how I'm smart and great at all these different things, but for whatever reason this is all I want to do. This is the only place I want to be in my life. And if I have to take a couple of knife-wounds in the process, then that's what I'll do. I want to prove myself to these guys. I want to be apart of this syndicate. I don't want to be some lousy messenger boy anymore."

"This is really what you want to do?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Yes," was all he said, moving his injured arm slowly and wincing once more from the pain.

Marietta exhaled deeply. "God damn you are stubborn," she remarked. Mulling over her decision quickly, without giving it too much thought, she sighed loudly and exaggeratedly. "If this is really really what you want to do, then you're coming to work for me. There's less chance of you getting knifed with me."

Henry's eyes widened in surprise and his face broke into the first smile she had seen out of him all afternoon.

"Really, you mean it?!" he asked excitedly, bouncing from foot to foot and looking like an over sized Labrador retriever on it's hind legs. "But wait, the L.A. guys... I can't just..."

"Don't worry about it," Marietta said simply with a smirk. "Give me their names. I'll make them an offer. You forget who I am, young blood. I'm very well connected."

Henry wrapped his good arm around his Aunt and smiled at her.

"Thank you. Thank you thank you. I don't even know what to say. You're sure you're not just joking?" he asked, bubbling over with enthusiasm.

"I'm not joking, but hey- while we're on the subject... don't make me regret this, okay?" she said seriously, punching him lightly on the shoulder. "Work hard and you'll fit in just fine."

The walls shook from the front door opening and closing down the stairs below them. Glancing at one another they figured that the last Rossi nephew, Nathaniel, had finally joined in on the party. Marietta smiled at Henry and grabbed him by the wrist.

"Come on. It's your dad's birthday, for Pete's sake. We better get apologizing and celebrating if we're going to save this evening. And... we still have to explain to your parents why you'll be flying back to Detroit with me tomorrow. That's a conversation I'd rather save until after we have the cake," she said with a grin.

Together they laughed as they made their way out of the bathroom, down the stairs. Marietta knew that Johnny wouldn't be thrilled at the prospect of his son staying involved in 'the business', but certainly it had to be better this way, having him work for someone he knew and trusted. In the back of her mind, however, she couldn't help but feel a grip of fear that nestled in, waiting to arise another day. Something wasn't sitting right. Something... big was coming to the Rossi family. And definitely not in a good way.

Yet whatever it was, she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

Once again another good read Godmother. I enjoyed reading it and I enjoyed reading the other parts also. I can't wait to see if there is going to be another part.

We have such a fascinating family...

smirks